


your love is always dangerous (and now i'm lost in us)

by hearden



Series: ranger lovefest [10]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja Steel, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Thieves, F/F, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 15:05:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearden/pseuds/hearden
Summary: After an offer for what seems to be a simple security job turns into a loss of reputation and public humiliation, Mia, Lauren, and Emily pull out all stops to catch a trio of thieves but end up in over their heads.(aka the lupin/pato-inspired ninja vs. samurai au that nobody asked for)





	your love is always dangerous (and now i'm lost in us)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathillards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/gifts).



> inspired by kathillards' [ninja vs. samurai dream team gifset](http://kathillards.tumblr.com/post/173137869977/dream-team-meme-lupinranger-vs-patoranger-for)
> 
> i tagged this as police but the samurai girls aren't police, they're like... freelance security but ANYWAY i aged up the ninja steel kids to be college age and this takes place in like present-day so tori's like early 30's and the samurai girls are mid to late 20's
> 
> count this as my contribution to ninja steel lovefest month even tho the team isn't like Together^tm... or even all mentioned rip

An art gallery wouldn't be so bad to be spending her Saturday night at if it wasn't for work. Lauren huffs and straightens her blazer for the millionth time tonight, undoing then redoing the only button. She's barely walked another step forward when her earpiece crackles to life with Mia's voice.

 _"I say this in the most loving way, Lauren, but could you be anxious a little_ **_quieter_ ** _?"_

"I didn't even _say_ anything," she mutters, slowly making her way around a crowd of elegantly-dressed, old, rich people. She would've thought there'd be more hipsters running around at an art gallery in Summer Cove, but apparently, she's wrong.

 _"You didn't have to,"_ Emily chimes in, helpfully, _"Your anxiety is super loud."_

She opens her mouth to fire back, but nothing good comes to mind. "Whatever."

 _"Status report,"_ Mia says, waiting.

Lauren knows Mia is somewhere up on the second floor in one of the walkways overlooking the gallery floor. She would've gone up there herself, but there's already other guards up there -- the _actual_ hired help. She, Mia, and Emily are just additional leverage.

"Crowds are stifling," she responds, "And I'm getting bored. How much longer is this?"

 _"Talk to people,"_ Emily suggests, _"That's what I've been doing."_

"I know," Lauren says, flatly, "People are…"

_"Annoyances."_

_"The worst."_

They're both teasing her, but Lauren takes them seriously, anyway, "Exactly."

 _"Night's gonna wind down soon,"_ Mia says, _"Keep your eyes peeled."_

Minutes pass as Lauren makes her way around the gallery, keeping herself closer to the perimeter but not close enough that she ends up getting caught in the crowds of people chattering away over the art on the walls. She does enough rounds that she sees Emily three whole times, talking away with an exuberant-looking woman in a deep red dress.

"You're not even _into_ art like this, Em," Lauren comments, raising her eyebrows, "This is all pretentious, snobby, high-end… stuff."

Emily finds her eyes and glares at her before going back to her conversation.

 _"It's so nice to find someone who appreciates good art,"_ Emily says, sweetly, _"I have a friend who just likes to hate on everything, as if she thinks she's_ **_such_ ** _a hipster."_

"Excuse me?"

Mia snorts.

Lauren begins another round, but she's quickly stopped by one of the gallery guards who grabs her arm. She quickly pulls away and raises her eyebrows. "What?" she asks, clipped. Everything about tonight _and,_ now, someone touching her when they shouldn't be.

"It's probably nothing," the guard says, "But the guy in the security room just said he saw something weird on the camera in the maintenance corridor. I was gonna go check it out. You should come with. You know, since you have those…"

Lauren stares at him.

"Extra skills," he finishes.

"Sure, extra skills."

The guard leads the way into the maintenance corridor, past a series of doors that say _Authorized Personnel Only._ It's a lot more red tape than Lauren would expect for a back hallway, really.

They round the corner and immediately spot a blonde in a soft yellow, sequined dress, a clutch in her hands. The guard freezes, but Lauren doesn't. "Hey!" she calls out, "Miss, you're not supposed to be down here!"

The woman takes one look at Lauren and the guard and takes off running.

Only the guilty have something to run from.

"Shit, come on." She bolts off after the woman, the other guard trailing behind her. Lauren is momentarily thankful for the few seconds she gains on the woman when she pauses to take off her heels. Reason number one why she'd been relieved that Emily had voluntarily taken the role of inside mingler so that she wouldn't have to.

The woman turns and throws one of her heels at Lauren. She dodges it easily, but it slows her down. The other heel goes flying, and this time, it almost hits the guard. Cursing under her breath, Lauren slips her hand into the pocket of her blazer and pulls out her matchbox, fumbling at it while she runs. The corridor doesn't go on for much longer, and at one point, they'll hit an exit where she won't be able to do this, so she has to work fast.

Lauren pulls out a match and hastily swipes it against the striker, lighting it on the first try. She flicks it toward the ceiling, focusing on feeding the fire until it sparks bright and hot. The sprinklers go off almost immediately, drenching the three of them in water. An alarm starts blaring. The woman stumbles, surprised, but keeps running.

 _“Lauren, what’s going on?”_ She can hear the frayed worry in Mia’s voice and, faintly, the background noise of people freaking out, which means they can hear the alarm, too.

“We’ve got a runner,” she answers, huffing, “I’m handling it.”

She thinks she's close, gaining on the woman, and then water suddenly rushes out of the sprinkler above her head, dousing her and throwing her off-balance. Lauren hits the ground, coughing and soaking, shoving wet hair out of her eyes. When she gets to her feet, the rest of the sprinklers have died down to a periodic dripping, including the one overhead. The woman disappears around the corner, and Lauren hears a door slam. She rushes after her and shoves the door open, but when the outside air hits her and her eyes adjust to the night sky, the woman is nowhere in sight.

Frustrated, she returns to the corridor to find the guard staring at an open door they'd passed on their chase. "You know, people only run when they're doing something wrong, so what I don't get is what she was even doing down here--" She pauses, noticing the fingerprint scanner by the open door, "Because there's nothing… here."

"Oh, there was something here," the guard says in the tone of voice that tells Lauren he'll probably be fired tomorrow.

She peeks into the room. There's no _visible_ security system in place, but she sees a camera in the corner, immediately. It's trained on a glass case in the middle of the room -- a glass case that's now shattered.

 

* * *

 

" _Maybe,_ you should have _told_ us that there was more to the gallery than just what was out here!"

Lauren tries her best to not get involved when Mia raises her voice any bit above a normal speaking level, so she just stands back, beside Emily, and crosses her arms. There's a towel on her shoulders -- the guard from earlier had been nice enough to get her one -- but her hair and clothes are still embarrassingly damp.

Mia has dressed down, looking more frustrated by the moment. Lauren had known things were about to go from zero to sixty the moment she regrouped with the others on the gallery floor after closing time had abruptly occurred earlier than expected and the first thing she'd seen was Mia storming toward Mr. Tien, yanking her blazer off, unceremoniously passing it off to Emily as she stomped by, and pushing up the sleeves of her red button-up.

Mr. Tien, for all his credit, doesn't look at all intimidated by Mia's anger. He's a small man, not quite imposing himself, but Lauren finds that he carries an air around him that says he doesn't care about any of their feelings and that does more than an imposing presence.

"The piece was kept secret for a reason, Miss Watanabe," he says, calmly, "Only a select few knew that I would be unveiling it tomorrow night instead of at tonight's official opening."

"That doesn't _matter,_ " Mia says, clenching her jaw, "You dropped the ball, we didn't know what to watch out for, and now _something's_ been taken." She throws her hands up and huffs, "What-- what did that woman even take?"

"The last piece that would go on display here," Mr. Tien says, "It was a hologram about this big." He holds his palm out, flat. Small enough to be easily concealed when running from security, Lauren notes, and obviously worth more than anything else in the gallery if Mr. Tien had locked it behind a door with a fingerprint scanner _and_ a glass case. And probably some thermal sensors as well.

"Who knew?" Lauren asks, firmly, putting as much irritation as she can into her voice -- which is a _lot_ since Emily bristles next to her, "Who, besides you, knew about the hologram?"

"The security company," he answers, a little hesitantly, "They had the blueprints for the building."

Lauren sighs and glances at Mia and Emily, who both look about as done as she feels. Too many people to narrow down. "Anyone else? Do you have any enemies?"

"I'm a businessman. I have a lot of enemies, Miss Shiba."

_Well, he's about to make another one. Or three._

"Anyone else?" Emily asks, instead. Her tone, at least, is the most polite. Lauren doesn't know if she _can_ be polite right now, and Mia has enough fuel to go off of for the next month about this. Not to mention that they kinda have to get the hologram back _first._

Mr. Tien thinks for a moment. "My son knows about it? But he's not involved--"

"We're gonna have to talk to your son," Mia interrupts, "Make sure we have all our bases covered."

"Well-- Okay," he nods, reluctantly, "He's at home right now. I can give you the address."

 

* * *

 

Tori unlocks the door to her apartment, finding the lights already on and Sarah and Hayley dancing around in her kitchen to Sarah's phone hooked up to _her_ Bluetooth speaker.

"Oh, come on, starting the party without me?" she teases.

"We just had that much faith in you," Hayley replies, grinning and pulling her and Sarah into a group hug.

"I lost _two_ heels tonight," Tori pouts, " _And_ I got wet."

"I mean, at least you would've thrown them away, anyway, right? Like you would've _walked_ home in them," Sarah says, shrugging.

"It's the principle," she counters.

"You're dry _now,_ " Sarah continues.

She draws in moisture from the air and flicks a few drops of water at Sarah, who frowns and wipes off where her blue dress had been hit.

"Cheater."

Hayley takes a step back and smiles, expectantly, "Alright, let's see what the fuss is all about."

Tori opens her clutch and pulls the hologram out, holding in her her palm, "Pretty plain and simple."

"Yeah, but Preston's paying us good money for it," Hayley muses, taking and examining it, "Good work, ladies. Any complications?"

"There was a team there, in addition to the guards the gallery hired," Sarah says, crossing her arms, "I saw them when I tapped into the security cameras." She nods at Hayley, "You were talking to one of them, that woman in the pink dress, and there was a second watching over the floor from the walkways."

"I'm pretty sure the woman I threw my heels at was a third," Tori says, "She wasn't dressed like the guard who was with her."

"The important thing is that we did a clean job," Hayley says, smiling brightly, "We'll wait for Preston's call to make the delivery, and then move on."

Tori raises her eyebrows a little, "Move on? Or move away?"

"Well," Hayley murmurs, coyly, wrapping an arm around Sarah's shoulders, "We could always stand to broaden our horizons some more…"

They've talked about this before, but now that it's finally happening… "So, last job in Summer Cove is one of revenge," Tori comments, eyeing the hologram in Hayley's hand.

" _Revenge_ is such a strong word," Hayley corrects, "Think of it as due justice."

Tori can't help but smile. Personal jobs always come off hard to swallow, but she's glad that this one isn't quite hitting as hard as she'd expected it to. Or, well, if it is, then Hayley's hiding it better than Tori had expected. She would, though, as their mastermind. "Alright, let's crack open the champagne and celebrate, then."

 

* * *

 

The Tien house is _sprawling._ Lauren sighs as she gets out of their SUV, adjusting her green jacket around her shoulders. They'd stopped at the house to get changed -- and for Lauren to irritatedly dry off, but that hadn't taken long since she just _made_ all the water in her hair and clothes evaporate -- before heading over to the Tien… mansion was looking more and more of an appropriate word as the minutes ticked by.

Mr. Tien was still at the gallery or the local police station, probably, filing a report and making a statement, which left only his son to answer the door as Mia steps forward and rings the doorbell.

"Uh, hello?" Preston Tien looks like a miniature but taller version of his dad, dressed in a sweater with a collar sticking out underneath that just screams _rich kid_ to Lauren.

"Hi," Mia offers her hand forward to shake, "My associates and I are security investigators, and we'd like to ask you some questions. Your father said you'd be home."

"Security investigators…?" Preston's brow furrows, "Like FBI?"

"Like a private firm," Lauren explains, "SAM. Your dad hired us for some extra security at his gallery opening tonight, but something's happened."

"Oh, okay, well, uh, you're welcome inside, I guess." He steps aside to let them in then leads them down and through many different hallways and rooms until they reach the living room. The furniture is, unsurprisingly, sleek and attractive. There's a family photo hanging over the fireplace instead of a television. Mr. Tien, a much younger Preston, and a woman Lauren assumes to be the late Mrs. Tien.

"Would you guys like anything to drink?" Preston asks, fidgeting with his hands.

"No, thank you," Mia says as she takes a seat on the couch. Emily follows her lead and takes a seat in an armchair next to the couch. Lauren chooses to stand.

"Uh," Preston takes a seat as well, glancing between them, "You said something happened at the gallery?"

"Something was stolen," Mia states, "We're investigating what happened and who was involved."

"Something was _stolen?_ While you guys were _there?_ " Preston's eyebrows raise, and Lauren feels that irritation rising inside of her again.

"Your father wasn't upfront with us," Lauren answers, curtly, cutting Mia off, who'd opened her mouth to speak, "We didn't know he had another piece that he hadn't released with the rest of the gallery debut."

Preston widens his eyes, "Oh, shit, was it the hologram?"

"So you know about it," Mia asks, "Could you tell us what was on it?"

"Yeah, uh, it's the only thing in the exhibit that my dad made. Or, well, _he_ didn't make it, but he had other people do it for him and then put his name on it. You know how it is. Anyway, it's meant to be, like, a tribute to my mom. I haven't seen it, but that's what he told me it was."

"Interesting," Emily bites her lower lip, thinking, "If it was something so personal, do you know of anyone who doesn't like your dad that much that they'd take something like that? I mean, some of the art there tonight was worth _millions,_ but whoever took it went for what had sentiment. Does your dad have enemies?"

Preston scoffs a bit, "He's a businessman. Of course he has enemies."

"Anyone in particular?" Lauren decides she might start getting snippy if someone doesn't give her _something_ specific soon. It's only been a few hours, but man, does her temper get riled up fast if there's water involved. And personal embarrassment, too.

"I mean…" Preston shakes his head, "Like, everyone in Summer Cove under the age of thirty, first of all. There used to be a park on the same land that the gallery's on, now, and there was this tree there that everyone hung ribbons on. It was a nice little town tradition -- anniversaries, deaths, marriages, stuff like that."

"I remember reading about that a few years ago," Mia muses, "The Ribbon Tree getting cut down."

"Yeah," Preston sighs, "It sucked. Honestly, my dad hasn't made a lot of friends over the years, so I wish you guys luck at catching those three."

"Have you been here all night?"

"Mhm, I can give you the number of one of the maids. She just left a little bit before you guys showed up."

"No, no, that won't be necessary," Mia says, smiling, "We've got all we need, and it's getting late, so we should go." She pulls a business card out of her pocket and hands it to him, "If you think of anything else, give us a call."

"Alright, cool, it was nice meeting you guys."

Lauren stays silent until they're all out the door and back in the SUV. In fact, nobody says anything until she puts the car in drive and leaves the neighborhood and the GPS is telling her in the background how to get back to Panorama City.

"He was lying," Mia says, quietly, from the passenger seat, "How do I know?"

"He slipped and said he hopes we catch _those three,_ " Lauren answers, immediately, gripping the steering wheel tightly, "Lucky us, he gave us an idea of who we're looking for. We didn't even know there was more than one."

"Makes sense," Emily says, leaning forward to better get involved in the conversation, "That woman you chased down, Lauren, she couldn't have been working alone. Do we think Preston's in on it?"

Mia shakes her head, "Not directly. He wasn't at the gallery, but he could've been their inside source."

"So, what's our next step?" Lauren asks.

"Go home, relive the night, and get him to give us more."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fic and chapter titles from I Don't Know Why - Imagine Dragons
> 
> me? start another fic? i kno right :/


End file.
